The Small Town

But we can do it. Together.

Keith sat in shock through Pidge's funeral. He couldn't breathe through most of it, and had no tears left to cry. Hunk was doing that enough for the both of them.

"What do you mean you couldn't save her!?" Mr. Holt had yelled. Lance started swearing at the nurse in Spanish, eventually turning around and continuing to curse through his cries. Keith's girlfriend or not, Pidge was still his best friend.

"¿A qué mierda te refieres? ¡Cómo demonios no podrías mantenerla viva! Este es un maldito hospital! Tu pedazo de mierda, enfermeras y doctores, no saben cómo coño hacer tu trabajo. ¡Mierda! ¡Mierda! ¡Te odio!" he cried out over Hunks wracking sobs.

Colleen stayed silent and Matt tried to help her regain some semblance of consciousness besides her unblinking eyes.

Keith got to his feet and punched the wall behind him.

Keith looked down at the bandage wrapping his bruised hand and sprained wrist, as a man he didn't recognize gave the eulogy. The funeral was bigger than he had expected, but he also wasn't surprised. Pidge had touched the hearts of so many people. It was held in their schools gymnasium, and over half the town had shown up.

At the end, after everyone had said their piece, he walked up alongside Lance, Hunk and Allura, and they looked at the flowers and pictures adorning the casket, and Allura turned to hug Lance, trying to control her wails.

"She was just, so small!" she cried. "She had so many ambitions! She could have changed the world!" Keith patted her back, fighting as hard as he could, until the tears finally spilled over. He hugged Allura's back, as Lance held her front, and the two boys wrapped their arms around her, and each other, as well as they could. Hunk gave in and engulfed them all.

When they broke, Keith returned his attention to the pictures. She was to be buried in the locket Lance had gotten for her, but the picture inside was blown up to cover a large canvas, as it was the best picture anyone had of her.

Eventually, after everyone had given the Holt family their condolences, and the gymnasium was nearly empty, the four teens were approached by none other than Ezor.

"I'm sorry. I had no idea the bees would do... this. I just wanted it to be an annoyance. God I'm so stupid!" she cried. Keith could see the silent tears still running down her cheeks. "I shouldn't have done that, and I know my words mean nothing at this point after... I'm sorry." Keith nodded, not quite accepting the apology, but it seemed to be enough for Ezor as she stalked away heavily.

A few days later, back in Pidge's house, Lance, Hunk and Keith stood in the middle of her room, her clutter surrounding their feet. The Holt family hadn't been able to walk into their basement, (Mrs. Holt hadn't even left her bed since the funeral) so the boys were entrusted to go through her belongings, and find the things she might like to be buried with.

Keith opened her memory box, and at the very bottom, was what resembled a diary.

He opened it to the first page and read aloud.

"Dear whoever is reading this. It's only happening because I'm dead, and not there to rip out your throat." Keith took a shaky breath. "And if I'm not, Lotor get the fuck out of my diary!" Hunk chuckled slightly, while Lance's face remained impassive.

Keith flipped a few pages in, and found the entry from right before Keith arrived.

"'Why the FUCK' - yes, she scremed fuck- 'did my parents invite people over for the summer. I'm gonna be stuck with some kid that doesn't know what a tree looks like. He's from the city!' Hey! I know what a tree is! 'God, this is going to be a terrible summer.'"

That sounds so familiar, he thought. He skipped a few more pages, to the night of Nyma and Rolo's party.

"'Have I expressed how stupid Keith is?! He got into a fight with Rax, who is twice his size, and we had to take him to the fucking hospital! Not gonna lie, he's kinda cute when he gets defensive. Like I'm ever going to say that to his face. Or his back. Or out loud for that matter. I'm gonna go find some cheezies.'"

Lance took the diary from Keith's hands and looked him in the eye.

For the first time since Pidge's funeral, Lance spoke.

"You know, when Pidge and I were about 6 or 7, she looked me dead in the eye and said, 'Lance, when I'm sixteen years old, I'm going to graduate. I'm going to graduate early, and I'm going to be a super rich and famous scientist, and I'm going to make a cure for allergies, and build a robot that saves the whole universe. It's going to have five parts, like the one on T.V, and you're going to fly the blue part.' I asked her why I had to fly the blue part, and she said it was because blue was the colour of my shirt that day." Tears brimmed his eyes and he sat on the floor, followed by Keith and Hunk.

"She held that ambition until the day someone told her that she could never do that, because she was a girl. She kicked them and marched away. I had to stop her from crying. She said, and I quote; "I want to be a scientist like my daddy and Alvin Mask."

"Did she mean Elon Musk?" Hunk asked, trying to hold back his tears, but chuckling nonetheless.

"I think so. And then, the year we met Hunk, about three years later, when we were nine and ten, she built a small robot. It only rolled around, and the wiring was visible, but it was a very big thing for a nine year old to do on her own."

"Sometimes, when Pidge got bored, she would take her toaster and take it apart, then build it again in under ten minutes," Hunk laughed. "She burnt the ends of her hair the first time when it lit on fire in her kitchen. I was there. We were supposed to be baking cookies."

Keith and Lance laughed along with him.

"I remember once, before winter break, she was laying underneath Shiro's car with him, and when Shiro pulled his arm out, it looked like a cybernetic arm. It was really neat. Pidge's face was covered in grease, and the white muscle shirt she wore wasn't white anymore. It was really cute." Keith leaned his back on Pidge's bed.

The three boys shared stories of Pidge for hours, neglecting their task of cleaning her room. Keith thought back to Lane's first story, and his heart clenched in his chest. She didn't make it to the age of sixteen. Almost, as her birthday was supposed to be in a week, but not quite.

Keith's eyes moved over to the picture of Pidge and Lance on her dresser. Pidge sat on Lance's shoulders, wearing his favourite jacket, and she was laughing. Lance was too. They were in a forest, and Hunk's 'Peace Sign' showed at the base of the picture. Pidge and Lance looked about two years younger, ages thirteen and fourteen.

Keith knew it would be hard, he loved Pidge, but he knew he would move past. It would take time, but with Hunk and Lance by his side, and the love and support of friends and family, time would go on.

He returned his attention to Lance, who was talking about how she had stood on his shoulders at the age of seven to reach the cookies her mother had put on the top counter. She fell and landed on him, successfully breaking both her left arm (a dilemma, her being left handed), and fracturing his tailbone. He laughed along with them at the memory.

It will be hard. But we can do it. Together.